Cricketers under fire
Ken Farnes and Hedley Verity
The poignant photograph above shows the two friends and England teammates being welcomed home after the Timeless Test by Farnes’s father. Within four years, both players would be dead. Farnes died in 1941 when his Wellington bomber crashed during a training flight in England. Verity, an infantry captain, was wounded in 1943 during the Allied invasion of Sicily, captured by the Germans and died of his wounds in Italy.
Chad Langton
The South African fast bowler died in 1944 when his aircraft crashed in Nigeria during a training flight.
Pieter van der Bijl
Of all the players in the Timeless Test who went to war, none rose higher in the ranks than South African batsman Pieter van der Bijl, who became a lieutenant-colonel and commanded the Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Rifles (then an armoured-car regiment and later to become the Cape Town Rifles). When he was a captain, he scouted behind enemy lines during the North Africa campaign and won his first Military Cross for bravery. He won another during the fighting in Italy and was invalided out of the battlefield after falling 15m, badly injuring his back and both legs.
Ronnie Grieveson
The South African wicketkeeper fought with distinction in the Battle of Sidi Rezegh against Erwin Rommel’s Panzer army. He was later transferred to the Allies’ Middle East HQ and was awarded an OBE for his wartime service.
Dooley Briscoe
A captain in the Transvaal Scottish Regiment, Briscoe played for SA in the second Test of the series. He was the first Test cricketer to die in World War 2, killed in action against the Italians in East Africa in 1944. He was awarded the MC.